By Dan Ambrose: Lightweight contender Keyshawn Davis says Vasily Lomachenko will expose some flaws in Devin Haney that fans have never seen before due to his creativity when they fight on May 20th on ESPN+ PPV in a Top Rank-promoted event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Davis believes that Haney (29-0, 15 KOs), the undisputed lightweight champion, will have his hand raised at the end against the former three-division world champion Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KOs).
Davis predicts the fight will go the twelve-round distance, but it’ll be an “interesting” clash.
Davis believes many people are going by how Lomachenko looked in his last fight against Jamaine Ortiz and dismissing Loma because of that less-than-spectacular performance.
Despite that, we don’t know what kind of preparation Lomachenko put in for that fight because he’d been out of the ring for ten months and was returning from the war in his native Ukraine.
Lomachenko fell behind early against Ortiz, who looked much bigger, but then rallied down the stretch to pull off a twelve-round unanimous decision. The score were 116-112, 117-111, and 115-113.
Much hype about Haney stems from his wins over George Kambosos Jr, Jorge Linares, and Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz. Still, Haney didn’t look impressive in any of those fights. Linares and ‘JoJo’ Diaz both staggered Haney and would have finished him if they had more power.
Against former unified lightweight champion Kambosos, Haney mostly jabbed & held and made it very boring in both fights.
Haney vs. Lomachenko, how to watch?
Devin Haney vs. Vasily Lomachenko will be shown on ESPN+ PPV on May 20th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
“For sure, I think Devin Haney will be Devin Haney, but I feel like Lomachenko will open up things we’ve never seen in him because Lomachenko is creative himself, too,” said Keyshawn Davis to Fighthype about his prediction for the May 20th, Top Rank-promoted fight on ESPN PPV.
“It’s still going to be a very interesting fight. It’s definitely going twelve. I don’t see nobody getting stopped. That’s something we all didn’t expect” Davis continued about the Devin vs. Loma clash.
“It’s going to be a hell of a fight for twelve rounds, a very interesting fight, but I got Devin. I think he’s [Lomachenko] going to make it a good fight. I think people want to go off his last fight [against Jamaine Ortiz]. That’s his last fight.
“I feel like he’s going off his last fight too, like, ‘I got to get better.’ We never know what that man [Lomachenko] was doing behind closed doors and how he was working & training because he already knew that he had to fight Devin next.
“So I’m not all the way going to exclude him out of the fight,” Keyshawn said about Lomachenko. “I still think he has some fight in him, and I think, like I said before, that he’s probably going to show us some things that we didn’t see out of Devin Haney because he still is Lomachenko.
“If me and Haney fight, I feel the fight would be in the middle of the ring for real,” said Davis. “I feel like it’s going to be about who is going to take control of the ring, whether it’s someone backing up or moving forward because you can control the ring backing up.
“So, I really feel it’s going to be about who is controlling the ring, not on who is backing up or moving forward. It’s who is the better and smarter boxer in there. Then the ability of us being fast, strong, and powerful and all that stuff is going to play a part, but it’s going to be about who is controlling the ring.
“Y’all didn’t even see me fight off my backfoot in the professional. I didn’t have to do that yet, but for every opponent, if you go back and look at my past fights, every opponent, not only did I get better, but I fought differently.
“Go back and look how I dropped this dude this time and how I went to the body more this time. It’s different for every opponent. I’m going to do s**t differently for every opponent. I just feel like I’m dominant all around, and I’ve been showing that.
“The reason people are comparing me to people that is 17-0 [Frank Martin] and people comparing me to Tank. I’m 7-0, and out of the first and I’m a contender. The s**t is different over here. Those guys that was 7-0, it’s not my 7-0. I just feel like I’m there walking in it, and it’s time for me,” said Keyshawn.
